Deputy technology editor

Allegedly confessed: Ivan, a 23-year-old Russian, is accused of hacking into Apple devices and holding them for ransom. Photo: MKRU

Russian authorities say they have detained two young hackers who are alleged to have hijacked Apple devices and digitally held them ransom.

The hackers - aged 17 and 23 - were detained in the course of "operational activities" by the Russian Interior Ministry, Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs said. They are both residents of the southern administrative district of Moscow and one has been tried before, it said.

It appears that just over a week before Australian users began reporting similar hijacking attacks, a Russian publication reported Russian citizens were being targeted. The same hackers then may have used their techniques to hijack Australian devices although it it may have been copycats.

In announcing the hackers had been detained, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said its Interior Ministry had successfully "stopped the activities of the group of persons involved in the blocking of Apple devices to extort funds". It said the hackers used two "well-established" schemes to conduct their activities.

"The first was to gain access to the Apple ID of a victim's account by creating phishing pages, [gaining] unauthorised access to email, or using social engineering techniques," the Ministry of Internal Affairs said. "The second scheme was aimed at binding ... devices to a pre-arranged account."

The pre-arranged account was one that hackers owned then "leased", or sold, to users by offering movies and music. But in order to access the content, users needed to link their devices to the account, which left the devices vulnerable to being hijacked by hackers who knew the log-in details.

Apple customers affected by similar antics in Australia included iPad, iPhone and Mac owners in Queensland, NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, who reported having their devices held hostage. Users in the US and other parts of the world also reported being affected.

Many affected users in Australia reported being woken early in the morning last month to a loud "lost phone" message that said "Oleg Pliss" had hacked their phone. They were then instructed to send an amount of money varying from $US50 to $US100 ($53.50 to $107) to the hackers to have it unlocked.

If a passcode was set on their devices the users could simply enter it, change their iCloud password and avoid having to deal with the ransom. But if no passcode was set, device owners reported having to erase their entire device. If a back-up existed, this could then be used to restore it.

Security experts suggested stolen log-in credentials were likely being used from previous data breaches for the Australian attacks.

The Australian Government's Stay Smart Online service and the NSW police issued warnings to Apple users following the ransom attempts, which stated that as a precaution users should change their AppleID/iCloud passwords.

3 comments so far

this isnt new ..the government have been doing this for years....holding us to ransom...new taxes la la la list goes on....

Commenter

skeptic

Location

perth

Date and time

June 10, 2014, 7:31AM

Ha! To all the Apple haters who bashed Apple for this ... The hackers used Phishing sites to lure victims and obtain passwords - we told you Apple was not hacked.

You stick to your insecure Android platform that houses 99% of all mobile malware ...for your sake, I hope you don't do your banking on your phone!

For those who don't know what phishing is - don't click on links in emails asking you to log in to fake sites to reset your passwords - wake up people!

Commenter

Me

Date and time

June 10, 2014, 9:15AM

Despite Apple being in the clear and not actually being hacked, I'm sure the haters will still be out in full force today. Nothing better to do I guess.